Can My Lighting Keep Any Corals?
- Thread starter swfishfan
- Start date
swfishfan
Member
i have a 60 gallon 1 year and 5 months established tank.
20 gallon sump with refugium
2 600 Gph rio powerheads
Water parameters are as follows:
1.023-1.024 salinity
0 amm
0 nitrites
0 nitrates
8.2 ph
live stock is
1 perc. clown fish
1 green chromis
15 blue leg
15 nasarius
10 various other snails
just taking it slow on the stocking
does this help
20 gallon sump with refugium
2 600 Gph rio powerheads
Water parameters are as follows:
1.023-1.024 salinity
0 amm
0 nitrites
0 nitrates
8.2 ph
live stock is
1 perc. clown fish
1 green chromis
15 blue leg
15 nasarius
10 various other snails
just taking it slow on the stocking
does this help
wangotango
Active Member
What are the dimensions of the tank?
The right T5 setup will allow you to keep anything you want, but you will most likely need more than two bulbs.
-Justin
The right T5 setup will allow you to keep anything you want, but you will most likely need more than two bulbs.
-Justin
swfishfan
Member
Originally Posted by travis99
the depth, the farther the light has to travel through the water the harder it will be to keep corals. That is if they are at the bottom. If you put them near the top of your tank, they would have a better chance of surviving.
so if i was to get low to moderate lighting required corals and placed them towards the top of my tank they would have a better shot at surviving?
the depth, the farther the light has to travel through the water the harder it will be to keep corals. That is if they are at the bottom. If you put them near the top of your tank, they would have a better chance of surviving.
so if i was to get low to moderate lighting required corals and placed them towards the top of my tank they would have a better shot at surviving?
swfishfan
Member
well this lighting is confusing to me and i know it is to many more, i traded in my 4 pc's bulb fixture for my now 2 t-5s bulb 10k and actinic bulb fixture? i was told this was an upgrade from what i had, but prior to this i was told i could keep corals under the pc's so why are my pc's ok but not my t-5's was that not an upgrade?
ibew
Active Member
Originally Posted by SWFISHFAN
well this lighting is confusing to me and i know it is to many more, i traded in my 4 pc's bulb fixture for my now 2 t-5s bulb 10k and actinic bulb fixture? i was told this was an upgrade from what i had, but prior to this i was told i could keep corals under the pc's so why are my pc's ok but not my t-5's was that not an upgrade?
t5s are an upgrade the problem is you need 2 more over your tank one more daylight and one more actnic you will be ready to go
well this lighting is confusing to me and i know it is to many more, i traded in my 4 pc's bulb fixture for my now 2 t-5s bulb 10k and actinic bulb fixture? i was told this was an upgrade from what i had, but prior to this i was told i could keep corals under the pc's so why are my pc's ok but not my t-5's was that not an upgrade?
t5s are an upgrade the problem is you need 2 more over your tank one more daylight and one more actnic you will be ready to go
wattsupdoc
Active Member
I understand you'r frustration. I see it all the time with the T5HO's. The problem is that most people dont really understand the difference in the different lighting choices. Hell, you have to practically be a scientist to figure it out. I hear people say to one person, 4 T5's will let you keep anything, then to a person like yourself "No, 2 wont do you any good". All with similar tank parameters. The truth is that most people want to believe they understand such a complicated subject. So they post up what they believe to be true. It gets read as if it's science and then the confusion snowballs, as that gets past on. Really if people dont know something to be true for themselves, it should be kept to themselves. I myself dont have any experience reef keeping with anything else but T5's. And am still a newbee somewhat myself. Having only being involved in it for1 1/2 yearas now. I hear things like "8 will melt softies but with 6 you're all good for anything" Knowing very well that that person has not had an 8 lamp setup to know if thats true. Theres even one person on here who claims to be a T5 expert, but at the time hadnt even owned one until months after making this claim. Then all that was done was to point people to a particular brand of T's with number of lamps they believed they needed. While this information was helpful in pointing people to a decent solution, it hardly constitutes being an expert.
I have an 8 X 39 watt T5HO set up on my 65 reef. It has a single reflector, with workhorse ballasts. It so far has let me keep anything I want. I have accidentally bleached some things out with it. But that goes for any high output setup (like halides VHO's etc.).I didnt light acclimate them properly. It is my belief that if you have a 2 lamp 54 watts T5HO with individual reflectors you are probably equal in light to what you had with the 4 lamp CF. But not an upgrade, You would need 4 to be an upgrade. And then there are those thats say 4 will do anything. You can probably keep quite a few corals with just the 2. Just my .02 worth.
I have an 8 X 39 watt T5HO set up on my 65 reef. It has a single reflector, with workhorse ballasts. It so far has let me keep anything I want. I have accidentally bleached some things out with it. But that goes for any high output setup (like halides VHO's etc.).I didnt light acclimate them properly. It is my belief that if you have a 2 lamp 54 watts T5HO with individual reflectors you are probably equal in light to what you had with the 4 lamp CF. But not an upgrade, You would need 4 to be an upgrade. And then there are those thats say 4 will do anything. You can probably keep quite a few corals with just the 2. Just my .02 worth.
swfishfan
Member
Originally Posted by Ibew
t5s are an upgrade the problem is you need 2 more over your tank one more daylight and one more actnic you will be ready to go
so where does over watting occur? i know that i can retro fit another two bulbs in but i dont want to kill off some corals by overwatting them? so my question is, lets say somebody has 4 39w bulbs? thats only 156? but i have 54w? if i add 2 more 54w bulbs thats 216w? so is that going to kill off some sps?
t5s are an upgrade the problem is you need 2 more over your tank one more daylight and one more actnic you will be ready to go
so where does over watting occur? i know that i can retro fit another two bulbs in but i dont want to kill off some corals by overwatting them? so my question is, lets say somebody has 4 39w bulbs? thats only 156? but i have 54w? if i add 2 more 54w bulbs thats 216w? so is that going to kill off some sps?
swfishfan
Member
wattsupdoc,
thanks for your opinion, i think so far you have put things into the light for me, i see what your point is and i very much appreciate it... i can see what your saying and maybe 2 t-5's will work but nobody really knows because they have not tried it themselfs, there going off of what they have read, i am not trying to be rebellious but what doc says is true, alot of people own mh's and have read that they need this and only this to keep all corals, they spend big bucks on fancy systems but they have never tried any other thing to realize that they could have reached the same outcome with something much cheaper, both system and maintance wise, thanks for the info. and well i guess i can only try it and see if it works, i will get a hardy easy care level coral, like shrooms, zoo's and monitor them for a few days, if they start to act weird then i haev learned my lesson ill return them and get myself two more bulbs
thanks for your opinion, i think so far you have put things into the light for me, i see what your point is and i very much appreciate it... i can see what your saying and maybe 2 t-5's will work but nobody really knows because they have not tried it themselfs, there going off of what they have read, i am not trying to be rebellious but what doc says is true, alot of people own mh's and have read that they need this and only this to keep all corals, they spend big bucks on fancy systems but they have never tried any other thing to realize that they could have reached the same outcome with something much cheaper, both system and maintance wise, thanks for the info. and well i guess i can only try it and see if it works, i will get a hardy easy care level coral, like shrooms, zoo's and monitor them for a few days, if they start to act weird then i haev learned my lesson ill return them and get myself two more bulbs